


Hot and Cold

by neverreallythere (orphan_account)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Asphyxiation, Attempted Weasel Hunting, Blood and Gore, Corpses, Fainting, Fever, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Graphic Depictions of Asphyxiation, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Infection, Medical, Medical Trauma, Mild Dark Humor, Optimism, Poor Social Skills, Post-Apocalypse, Survival Horror, Vomiting, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:13:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21789598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/neverreallythere
Summary: Joanie was just an ordinary guy galavanting around the remains of the world after the war. After finding a young man in an abandoned lab who had to breathe with a bag he squeezes to live, he took him along like a stray dog and the two wandered away. At least one of them was likely to die in the next day or two. Joanie was a little too optimistic to care.
Relationships: Original Male Character & Original Male Character
Kudos: 5





	Hot and Cold

Joanie woke comfortably, ignoring the stinging in his knee after he had scraped it the day before. He yawned and stretched his arms.

“Aaaah. Look at that sky” he spoke aloud to himself. The clouds were pink and orange tinged in the sunrise. He picked himself up from the ground and, after taking a morning leak in a bush, continued to make his way up the massive, grassy hill. Or small mountain. He would have asked someone which it was but they were all dead. Probably.

The hillside became more like a cliffside. Joanie had to watch his step and make sure his boot laces didn’t get caught. Tumbling down from that high would probably not end well. The rocks weren’t exactly sharp but still… broken bones would be the best outcome.

“I’m sure whatever’s in there is worth it” he nodded, looking to the dilapidated building at the top. 

When Joanie reached the building he sighed and wiped sweat off of his brow. He took his goggles off to clean them with the corner of his shirt and afterwards rested them on top of his head.

Three knocks to the rusty metal door.

“Anyone home?” Joanie called. He heard what sounded like a crash and bottles rolling around.

“I’ll just invite myself in!” Joanie smiled then opened the heavy door that he was pleasantly surprised to find was unlocked.

The smell was terrible. It reeked of dead animal in Joanie’s opinion. It was dark and dank with mold and dust. The walls and floors were tiled with grime in the grout and the dim light shone from some flickering lightbulbs hanging off the ceiling.

There was a strange noise echoing that was rhythmic like a heartbeat. 

What was most interesting were the old inactive machines lining the walls and the various bins of things that Joanie didn’t recognize. There were also three little rooms with only curtains covering the front of them. It reminded him of bathroom stalls and emergency rooms.

“Hello. Who’s there?” Joanie asked. The strange noise stopped for a second then resumed.

“Hmm. Let’s check door number one.” Joanie approached the first curtain. It was emblazoned with a black number seventeen. He opened it.

The stall was empty save for some large garbage bags filled with something dark and wet and covered in flies. They were leaking… juices. The source of the bad smell.

“Hoo!” Joanie coughed and waved a hand in front of nose. “Nasty.”

He backed up and decided to close the first curtain, leaving all as he found it. He approached the second curtain. Expectedly it had an eighteen on it.

“Time for door number two!”

Pulling back the curtain revealed a young man hunched on the floor against the wall surrounded by medicine bottles spilled around, pills littering the floor. He was the source of the strange noises. Joanie was captivated by the weird bag he was squeezing that he was holding onto his face like an oxygen mask.

“Hello” Joanie greeted gently. “I’m Joanie. Who are you and what’ve you got there?”

The boy stared at him with wide eyes and didn’t answer, which made sense. Joanie lightly touched the bag without asking and lifted it up a bit. It had a big plastic part on the mask that the guy was squeezing every couple of seconds that said “Pocket BVM” on it under his slim fingers. And there was a clear plastic bag dangling off of the end of it.

Joanie let go and stood up. “That’s neat” he grinned. He walked around the stall and observed.

There were rusted metal shelves with opaque metal bottles and clear glass jars on them. The jars had murky liquids of varying colors in them, some housing small pickled objects of unknown origin. Also sharing space on the shelves was various tubing and a few prescription-looking pill bottles, though most of those appeared to be knocked off and on the floor.

“Is this thing busted?” Joanie asked as he kicked an old, roached-out machine against the wall. He saw the young man nodding out of the corner of his eye.

“Figures” Joanie huffed. “That’s no fun.”

He turned and faced his new buddy with his hands on his hips.

“There’s no food in here unless you’ve been eating the rotten guts laying around. You should probably find a new home if you don’t plan on becoming cockroach dinner.” Joanie smiled. “Why don’t you come hiking with me! It’s lonely these days. C’mon, it’ll be exciting.”

The boy stopped breathing for a moment to scratch the scar on his throat under the neck of his t-shirt and contemplate it.

“I mean, if you wanna starve-“

He dropped his bag on the dirty floor and leaned against the wall to get up an shaky legs. Joanie chuckled, picked up the bag, and handed it to…

“What’s your name again? Nah, it doesn’t matter. I’ll call you Eighteen” Joanie told him, pointing at the curtain. His friend didn’t seem to care.

Joanie told Eighteen to wait a second while he opened the third curtain. Nineteen. This stall was also empty save for a man in a doctor’s coat that lay deceased with a bullet wound to the head. The corpse didn’t seem very old. He must have died relatively recently. Joanie hummed in thought.

“There are more people left than I thought. Well, there _were_. Oh well. Let’s go.”

They opened the door and stepped outside.

“Ahh, fresh air!” Joanie exclaimed.

Eighteen closed his eyes and lowered his hands slowly, letting the light breeze flow over his bare face. Joanie poked the bag in his hands.

“So you stop breathing and would die if someone took this from you for too long, right?”

Eighteen looked at him slightly offended as if that was a threat.

“Just making sure” Joanie grinned, and they started walking.

It got hotter as the sun got higher in the sky. Joanie removed the scarf from his own neck and shoved it inside his satchel. Eighteen made a small noise and started scratching his back vigorously. It was making Joanie scratch himself. The sweat _was_ rather itchy on unwashed skin.

“I gotta find some shade” Joanie complained. He looked around. There was a rock wall off the side of a small cliff that wrapped around the mountain-hill thing. He started searching for sections sticking out enough to crawl under and out of the sun. Eighteen followed him.

They eventually found what probably constituted as a miniature cave and sat in it.

Joanie crossed his legs, plopped his satchel in his lap and started rifling through it. “I’ve got a little bit of water here. We should use it sparingly though, you know? And there’s some food but it’s only for emergencies. I’d rather catch something or pick something as I go.”

Eighteen peered in the satchel and Joanie sighed.

“Since there’s two mouths to feed it would have helped if you had food on you. But I forgive you” Joanie said and patted Eighteen’s shoulder. “There’s probably food around.” He pulled his small canteen out and took a little sip of water before handing it to Eighteen.

Eighteen dropped his bag and took an even smaller sip than Joanie. He gave the canteen back and grabbed Joanie’s arm and stared at him.

“I’ll take that as a thank you. Well you’re welcome.”

Joanie got up and crawled out of the cave. The two of them wandered around looking for food or water.

“Maybe there’s a stream or something. With drinking water. Or mud. We could use some mud as sunblock. I dunno if there’s stuff like that on a mountainside. Or hillside. Cliffside?” Joanie rambled. Eighteen ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. They ended up back in the mini-cave.

Joanie pulled a pouch out. 

“You look so skinny that you haven’t eaten in forever. You want some berries? I was saving them, but. You know.”

Eighteen nodded eagerly. He popped two berries in his mouth at the same time and ate ravenously. Joanie was kind of impressed with how long he go without using his bag.

“You made a mess” Joanie chuckled and Eighteen looked sheepish. He rubbed his mouth with his hand and rubbed his hand on his pants. Then he resumed squeezing his bag.

“Let’s just keep walking down the hill. We’ll find something good!”

They didn’t find anything besides a large stick that Joanie brandished like a weapon. He took it with him. It wasn’t good for a walking stick but could attack a small animal in a pinch. He mimed a sword-fight while shouting “Yah, yah!” until it started getting dark.

When night had fallen they relaxed on the sloped grass. Joanie yawned. He was awfully tired and his knee was hurting more. He may have strained the wound playing with that stick but it was kind of worth it. In his opinion.

Eighteen looked exhausted and frankly sad.

“Cheer up. We don’t need to make a fire because it’s still so warm out here. And the grass will make a great bed compared to a tile floor, right?”

Eighteen wouldn’t look at him.

“Oooh, right. You can’t squeeze that thing if you sleep. Hm.” Joanie didn’t know when the last time Eighteen got any sleep may have been. The bags under his eyes told a story.

“Well, I could do it for you while you sleep. We could take turns. When I need to sleep you could wake me up after a while and we could switch again.”

Eighteen was visibly nervous about it but Joanie convinced him. He watched Eighteen do it for a little while so he wouldn’t mess it up and then they tried to get comfortable. Joanie ended up all but shoving Eighteen down on his back with his head in Joanie’s lap.

“There. Nice and comfy. Now go to sleep. It’s a shame that I don’t know any bedtime stories.”

Eighteen rolled his eyes. He was so exhausted, though. Maybe he really could sleep like that. Joanie watched as his eyes quickly fluttered shut.

Joanie was fascinated as he observed his new friend’s chest rise when he squeezed the bag. Would he snore?

They stayed like that somewhere from forty-five minutes to an hour before Joanie started getting too tired. He apparently also wasn’t paying attention because he squeezed the bag too hard. He knew the instant he did it that he messed up.

Eighteen gagged and opened his eyes while he pushed the bag and Joanie away. He rolled on his side and threw up bile tinged purple, perhaps from the blueberries.

“Oops. Sorry, buddy. I guess I’m off my game because I’m getting tired too. Maybe we should switch?”

Eighteen shivered and Joanie stuck the mask over his face and kept breathing for him.

“Let’s wait a few minutes, hm?”

They switched eventually and Joanie was out like a light. He was disappointed that Eighteen hadn’t woke him at all again when the sun rose and he woke on his own. He decided not to bring it up, though.

What Joanie was even more disappointed about was his own knee. The cut was red and raised and leaking watery yellow fluid. It _hurt_. 

“Damn. This won’t hold me back. I’ll get used to it” he reassured Eighteen, who was looking concerned. 

Joanie was sweating even though it wasn’t that hot yet. When he tried to get up he swayed, dizzy. But he shook it off as best he could just like he said he would.

The two kept making their way down the mountain-hill.

“Truth be told I don’t know where I’m going. But I never do so it’s no big deal. Besides, we gotta get down this big ‘ole hill. Unless you have a better plan…?”

Eighteen shook his head no.

“That’s fine! It’s more fun that way.” Joanie grinned.

A large bush made itself known as they explored. It had berries but most of them weren’t suitable for consumption. They plucked the best ones they could find.

“Great! I’m ninety percent sure these are edible. Don’t worry about that last ten percent. It doesn’t count.”

When Joanie had put them away he squinted in the sun. “Now where would water be? Maybe it’ll rain…”

The odd couple couldn’t get their hands on any water despite their best efforts but Eighteen spotted something else just as enticing. A rodent-looking mole or weasel or other such small mammal. Joanie put a finger to his own lips.

“We gotta be quiet” he warned. He eyed Eighteen’s bag. “Quit that for a few seconds, would you?”

Eighteen hesitantly obliged. Joanie attempted to sneak up on the animal. He aimed to spear it with his fancy new stick.

“C’mere, bugger… “ Joanie barely whispered. He stabbed.

He missed.

The thing took off and Joanie ran after it. He chased it in circles but was no match with his bad knee. The animal tried to hide several meters away but Joanie could still see it behind a fuzzy rock.

Sighing Joanie dug through his satchel again. He could hear Eighteen breathing behind him. He pulled out a pistol.

“I hate to do this but that thing is fat. It’s got meat on it’s bones” Joanie explained. He aimed a slightly shaky hand. He fired.

Missed again. The creature got the message, though, and ran far away out of sight.

“Shit!” Joanie swore. “And wasted ammo. I don’t have tons of the stuff. That was loud, too. Don’t wanna attract unwanted attention” he commented ominously.

He put the gun away. He didn’t let the setback get to him. They found more berries after all.

Their search for a drink looked like it was coming to an end when Joanie thought he heard running water. The two were right on the edge of another rocky cliffside as Joanie listened. It wasn’t too incredibly high but would spell death for anyone who fell.

They were trying to be careful. Really.

Then Eighteen tripped and dropped his bag off of the cliff.

The boy watched, on his knees, as his lifeline fell and hit the rocks on the way down. It was too far away to see where it landed. He slapped his hands over the lower half of his face as if trying to keep what air he had left inside of him, trembling with wide eyes. 

Joanie stared, shocked, with his mouth open. He quickly composed himself.

“Easy, bud. We’ll figure this out” he soothed, walking over to Eighteen and rubbing his back. His friend just stared ahead horrified.

“Hey, relax. Stay still. Lean on me.”

Joanie sat down behind Eighteen and pulled the other off his knees and against him. Eighteen was still shaking and holding onto his face.

“Don’t move. You’ll just make it worse. Here, let me.” Joanie slipped his hand under Eighteen’s and held his mouth shut with his palm while pinching his nose with his fingers. He didn’t know if it actually helped hold the air in but if it made Eighteen feel better then he’d do it.

Eighteen let his arms flop beside him. He leaned into Joanie’s back. Joanie ran his fingers through Eighteen’s hair then put two against his neck to feel his pulse.

“You’re okay” he whispered, then rubbed Eighteen’s chest.

They sat like that for a beat before Joanie guided Eighteen to lay down on his side. He told him he was going to open his satchel. Eighteen clamped his hands down on his face again and Joanie found his scarf. He wrapped it tightly against Eighteen’s mouth and nose and tied it in the back. Again, he didn’t know if it actually helped, but. It’s the thought that counts.

“There we go. So, I’m gonna go get it. You should probably come with. Don’t move a muscle still.”

Eighteen scrunched his eyes shut and let himself be scooped up and held piggyback by Joanie.

“Onward!” Joanie shouted, smiling. Then he ran as fast as he could.

“There’s a grassy slope around this way that should wrap around to where it landed” Joanie explained as he ran. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it didn’t get ripped open. The rocks weren’t that sharp.”

Eighteen twitched. He hadn’t considered that possibility until Joanie brought it up.

Joanie tried to count the seconds of how long Eighteen had been without his bag but he hadn’t started counting until they were running. It must have been almost a couple of minutes which, again, was impressive. He himself was starting to get winded and his knee was killing him, bleeding through his pants.

“I gotta- gotta stop for a second-“ Joanie panted but was interrupted by a whimper and Eighteen flailing off of his back. They both toppled onto the ground and tried to keep from rolling down the hill.

Eighteen sobbed and pawed at his face hysterically trying to get the scarf off. Joanie grabbed his arms.

“Knock it off! You’ll scratch your face up!” he scolded. But he was exhausted and couldn’t wrestle with him for long so he let Eighteen pry the scarf off if he wanted to that badly.

After struggling a bit with shaky hands Eighteen got the scarf down off of his face. He puffed out his breath and went limp, relaxing from lessening the pressure. Two seconds later he was back to panicking and started scratching at his chest, his throat, his face. None of that was going to make his useless lungs work but his frenzied mind couldn’t process it.

“Damnit, Eight!” Joanie yelled, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He wrenched the scarf away from Eighteen and undid the knots.

The two scrabbled with each other until Joanie was able to roll Eighteen over and tie his hands behind his back with the scarf to keep him from ripping himself open.

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll be right back!” Joanie called as he left his friend and ran away down the hill. He couldn’t carry him like that. And he didn’t dare spare another glance at Eighteen because he was done looking at him suffer.

Joanie started counting again in his head- ten seconds, fifteen, twenty! -until he found the rocks at the bottom of the cliff he was looking for.

“Okay, it’s here. It’s around here, it’s not broken, it’s here somewhere-!”

He couldn’t find it.

“Fuck fuck _fuck_ -“

He found it.

It was shoved between two rocks. He took it out and looked it over for a millisecond to see that it wasn’t ripped or broken. It didn’t seem to be and he ran back.

“Don’t be dead don’t be dead.”

Joanie skidded to his knees beside Eighteen. His only friend was purple and foaming and twitching and he was pretty sure dead people didn’t move that much.

“I’m here, Eight, I wasn’t gonna leave you” he assured as he scooped the foam and puke and whatever else it was out of Eighteen’s mouth before shoving the mask against his face.

Joanie squeezed and made sure not to do it too hard this time.

“There we go, buddy, breathe. Breathe. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

Eighteen’s color started looking better. His eyes were half-open but he wasn’t totally conscious yet. Joanie wanted to untie his wrists but was afraid of ever letting go of the bag again.

When he came back to himself Eighteen stared at Joanie with bloodshot eyes full of a bunch of emotions that Joanie was not about to unpack. Instead he made himself remove his hands from the bag and let Eighteen squeeze it for himself after untying his wrists.

“Feel better?”

Eighteen nodded while he sat himself up. Joanie ironically was starting to feel very heavy.

“Good, good. We need to… it’s almost dark out, we gotta get to the bottom of the hill so we don’t… “

Joanie flopped over limp. His unresponsive body started to roll down the slope. Eighteen got up and chased after him.

At the bottom of the hill Eighteen desperately shook Joanie to no avail. He felt his forehead. It was burning up. After taking a minute to sit down and breathe again he remembered the wound on Joanie’s knee. Eighteen rolled up the damp pant leg to examine it which elicited a pained whimper from Joanie.

The cut was badly infected, covered in pus and blood. They didn’t really have anything by way of first aid in the satchel. It was getting too dark to see the wound very well anyway. Unfortunately a light source was something they were also short on.

Joanie shivered and sweated. 

That was the first night in a long time that was much colder than the day.


End file.
